


i'd say stop the presses, but the press might be just what we need

by ekbelfield



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, News Media, Post Season 4, Reunions, brief mentions of dates with other people, don't worry it's all olicity in the end, this is what happens when the press gets involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 22:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7194200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ekbelfield/pseuds/ekbelfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity try to move on.</p><p>This is what happens when the press won't let them.</p><p> </p><p>-Or-</p><p>Five time the press thinks Oliver and Felicity have reunited.  And one time they actually do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'd say stop the presses, but the press might be just what we need

**Author's Note:**

> What's up everyone!
> 
> I had so many ideas after the Season 4 finale, I didn't really know where to start, but several of them are rolled into this fic. I glossed over them actually resolving the conflict that ended their relationship... I was trying to keep it light, so if that's what you are looking for, I'm very sorry, but I do have an idea for a fic that will deal with that, it just hasn't made it to paper yet, though i'm not totally sure there aren't other people that can do that sort of thing better, serious/angst isn't my wheelhouse.
> 
> I hope you all are surviving the hiatus! And I'm very much looking forward to a summer of great fic!
> 
> Enjoy!

**1.**

He’s been trying to move on, honestly, so he sets her up with Dave from the Mayor’s Office. He’s the Director of Digital Outreach, and he’s single and non-threatening, so Oliver talks Felicity up, and introduces them at the annual SCPD fundraiser. They hit it off right away, and he observes them from across the room, ignoring the pang he feels at seeing her smile directed at someone else.

He just wants her to be happy, it’s the _only_ thing he’s wanted since they finished scratching names out of his father’s book. He’s finally realized he loves her enough to let her go, that they need this to have a healthy, functional partnership.

So a week later, when he asks how their date went, he finds himself oddly disappointed when she frowns.

“There won’t be a second one.” She replies, voice unaffected even if her eyes are holding some tension.

“What happened? Dave wouldn’t shut up about you this week, I swear he was giving Curtis a run for his money.”

She laughed, a dry, brittle sound, before pulling up an article from the Star City Sentinel on her phone.

 _Star City Power Couple Reunites For Secret Rendezvous_ stared at him from the small screen. The press was constantly writing articles like this, all of them baseless, so Oliver didn’t understand the connection. The confusion must have shown on his face, because Felicity explained.

“The photo with the article. It was taken the same night as our date. I’m wearing the same blouse. He saw it and assumed, wrongly, that you and I are a thing. That I was going behind his back.” She sighed, closing the browser on the phone.

“But that was the night I needed you to run recon for those new vertigo rumors. It’s just a grainy picture of us in an alley, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know that. But I couldn’t exactly tell him what we were doing, and even I can admit it doesn’t look good. As much as I liked him, I can’t date someone who doesn’t trust my word.” Felicity looked forlorn, and it made Oliver ache a little.

“Do you want me to talk to him?” He asked, wanting to see her face light up again as she had at the fundraiser the week before.

She smiled at him, a little sad, before patting his arm. “I appreciate that, Oliver, but if he’ll take your word, and not mine, how is that any better?”

Oliver didn’t know what to say to that, so he let the conversation lapse into silence. Though it did present a new problem. How could they move on, if the press didn’t want to let them?

**2.**

Felicity was on her second date with Steve, a cute guy she met at the grocery store. He wasn’t like any of the other men she’d dated, but he seemed fun, and he was the first guy in awhile she wasn’t constantly comparing to Oliver. _Progress_ she thought to herself, even as Oliver’s face swam before her mind’s eye. _Well, sort of_.

He had caught her day dreaming, but he laughed it off, asking her more questions about her work as CEO at Palmer Tech. Either this guy was genuinely interested in her work, or he was really good at faking it, but either way he was scoring major points as the date progressed.

They were in a local sports bar, his suggestion, and one of the TVs was tuned to the local news station. She didn’t think much of it, until Steve’s questioning tone accompanied a squint at the smallest screen in the bar.

“Is that… you?” He asked, looking back and forth between the screen and her face.

She winced, turning to look, only to be met with video footage of Oliver escorting her out of the mayor’s office earlier that day. The footage would be totally innocuous, if it wasn’t accompanied with the blaring headline STARS ALIGNING FOR MAYOR AND CEO REUNION? She groaned, turning back to Steve who was watching her curiously.

“I had to stop by the Mayor’s Office to check on some permits for the renovation of our communications offices that have been wrapped up in some red tape. Oliver’s a friend so he agreed to help me out.”

“That’s cool.” He said, neutrally and Felicity had almost breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t about to make this _a thing_ , but his next words had her sucking air in instead.

“You think you could introduce me? The Queen family is legendary in Star City; I grew up admiring Queen Consolidated. I can’t believe…” She tuned him out as he prattled on about Oliver, rivaling even her most impressive babbles.

She agreed to make the introduction, while simultaneously deciding not to go on a third date with this guy. She couldn’t date someone just as into Oliver as she was.

**3.**

Oliver and Felicity were both attending the benefit for the Children’s Hospital, separately, and what better way to cement that then for Oliver to bring a date. The first woman he’ll be seen with in public other than Felicity in months. He was finding it difficult to suppress his nerves as he picked her up, a woman named Melissa that he met at a government function.

She had kind eyes and was whip smart (…maybe he had a type), and he’d enjoyed the conversations they’d had leading up to the benefit. He warned her the press would be interested in her, and she just brushed it off.

“Oliver, I’m an advisor for a congressman. I deal with the press all the time.” She laughed as she said it, tossing her hair back as he opened the door to the limo.

“Not like this.” He muttered under his breath, before plastering a smile on his face and turning to assist her from the limo as camera flashes went off around them. There was a murmur from the press as they realized a brunette was getting out of the limo behind him, and not a familiar blonde, and suddenly there was pushing and shoving amongst the photographers to get the best shot.

Melissa seemed taken aback by the aggressiveness of the paparazzi, but tried to hide it as they walked the red carpet. “Is it like this all the time?” She whispered to him as they posed.

“No.” He whispered back, debating whether or not to tell her more. He didn’t get the chance, because Felicity had arrived, sans date, and the photographers were now clamoring to get a shot of her, the commotion distracting Melissa as Oliver caught sight of Felicity wearing a floor length green dress.

Melissa didn’t tell him the chaos of dating him was too much for her. She just e-mailed him a shot from the benefit, of Melissa with confusion in her eyes as Oliver stared at Felicity open-mouthed, her smiling nervously back.

**4.**

Thea texts Oliver a link to an article in the Star City Sunrise titled _Smoak and Queen on the Scene_. It features a photo of Oliver and Felicity leaving a nightclub together, after they had investigated reports of vertigo being sold. He had his arm around her, because some scuzzy drug dealer had gotten a little too close to her before he could take him out, and she was shaken up. His jacket is draped over her shoulders, and he’s certain that he’s scanning her body for injury, but the photo just makes it look like he’s checking her out.

Oliver ignores the text.

**5.**

When Felicity sees it’s her mother on the phone, she answers immediately. She starts to say “Is everything okay?” But can only get out the first word before she’s jerking the phone away from her sensitive eardrums as Donna shrieks though the phone.

“Why didn’t you tell me you and Oliver got back together?” Her excited squeal is accompanied by a demand for details, and Felicity is recovering from the shock as she pieces together what, exactly, her mother is saying.

“Oliver and I didn’t get back together.” Felicity says, bracing for her mother’s disappointment.

“You didn’t? But the Star City Sentinel said-“

Felicity cuts her mother off. “You’re going to believe some journalist over the word of your own daughter?” Felicity doesn’t mean to sound harsh but she does, and regrets it immediately when she hears her mother’s deflated tone.

“I’m sorry, honey, I just got so excited. I just want you to be happy.”

“I know, mom, I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just been a rough couple of weeks with the press.” She thinks for a minute. “What did they say that made you believe it?”

Donna is quiet for a beat too long on the other end of the line. “I’ll send you a link.” She hangs up before Felicity can respond.

She gets the link a minute later, taking a moment to marvel that Quentin must be a much better teacher than her, seeing as the link actually gets to her, but her musing evaporates upon seeing the photo and headline.

 _Another Secret Olicity Wedding?_ is accompanied by a photo of Oliver and Felicity leaving the courthouse. She knows, she _knows_ that’s not what this is. Oliver was looking for some files on a cold case, the sort of thing she couldn’t hack into. But she feels a twinge of something in her chest that she can’t put a word to but it feels a little like regret and longing mixed together.

She’s wearing the white work dress she had worn to Palmer Tech that day, and he’s wearing a suit, and they look so perfect together, so _right_. She knows what her mother saw in that photo, because she sees it, too. There’s so much love in the space between their smiles. Maybe it’s time to stop fighting it.

**+1**

They’re outside Palmer Tech; he’s walking her back to her building after sharing lunch together. He’s vaguely aware of the photographers following them, but it’s easy to block them out in favor of listening to Felicity chatter on about the innovations Curtis is making in the fuel cell technology. The sunlight catches in her hair and all he can think about is how much he loves her.

They reach the door and she turns to say goodbye and he moves without thinking, like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

It registers that leaning over and pecking her on the lips is _not_ the most natural thing in the world, not anymore, when the shutters of the cameras lurking roar back into existence.

He pulls back, sheepish expression on his face, but she’s smiling and he can feel his heart expanding, filling the rest of his body like a balloon, and he thinks he could float away. But she grounds him by his tie, pulling him back in for a real, full kiss, and the camera flashes should be blinding, but they aren’t as blinding as the fireworks exploding behind his eyes.

 

They keep a copy of the photo framed in their bedroom. Accompanied by the headline OLICITY LIVES!


End file.
